Bill Little Articles XV

 Bill Little articles For https://texassports.com–

• The Second Half

• The Answer

• The 5th Brick

• Spinning Wheel

• Another Opening Another Show

• It’s All About Attitude

• Where Dreams Come True

• A Stepping Stone

• It’s about Mortar

• Two Dozen Sandwiches

• The Air of Confidence

• Here Comes Fall

10.30.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: The second half

Oct. 30, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

It would be easy, on a night when the offense put up 590 yards and the defense held an opponent to fewer yards than any Texas team since World War II, to try and dissect what it all meant. So let me help you a little here.

The glass is half full if you bask in the success and the statistics. It is half empty if you choose to discount the evening’s accomplishments based on the record of the opponent. Neither, really, catch the message of what happened Saturday night in the Longhorns’ 43-0 victory over Kansas.

Winning is fun and losing is not, and that shall always be the case. So it shouldn’t surprise you that the Longhorns were smiling as the clock ticked down on a perfect autumn night at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Offensively and defensively, Texas had dominated. They had rushed the ball for an amazing 441 yards, and had allowed their opponent only 46 net yards total.

But as they had shucked the leaves of upsets past, they had continued a theme that has been evident from the very start with this crew: they really like each other. They stand as family. They have chosen to grow together. To do it right.

That was evident in the locker room after the game, when an emotional Mack Brown reminded the team of their commitment to loved ones whose lives had been touched by cancer. Each player had chosen to dedicate the game to someone so affected. And in the silence of the moment, they had a chance to give thanks for them, and for each other.

We had seen that when freshman running back Joe Bergeron powered his way for 35 yards for the game’s final touchdown and quarterback Case McCoy raced to the end zone to join his teammates in celebrating. And then, we saw it when McCoy came to the sideline, to be greeted by fellow quarterbacks J.P. Floyd and David Ash. Week after week, day after day, practice after practice, those three have bonded together as three musketeers in co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin’s workshop for excellence. Together, they have spent hours watching video, meeting and learning. They have thrown probably a hundred passes a day and measured their steps and executed their snaps and their plays. So like brothers, they had a chance to celebrate-not themselves-but their team.

On the next series, as the Jayhawks moved the ball to the Texas 40 for the first time in the game bringing a moderate threat toward the Longhorn goal line, linebacker Emmanuel Acho stood on the sidelines with the rest of the first team defense. “I’m going in,” he said to fellow senior linebacker Keenan Robinson, “with or without you.” Before the series was over, the first team defense had basically inserted itself back on the field, and the Longhorns’ first shutout since the National Championship year of 2005 was preserved.

That is why we like this team, and it is why Mack Brown and his coaches believe in it. In the two weeks following the back to back losses to the excellent teams of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, this group has concentrated on one thing – getting better. It is a cliché to call them “A Band of Brothers,” but that is what they are.

It is so fitting that they continue to embrace the theme coined last spring by the football staff of “Brick by Brick.” It’s fitting because despite setbacks and challenges, they are determined to continue building. And you get the sense that they build, not for you and me, but for each other.

Saturday’s defensive effort was a showcase of what coordinator Manny Diaz and the other assistants have been looking for. It was a knock down, shut down of a team that had averaged 30 points a game in facing a tough schedule. The numbers were astounding. By the end of the third quarter, Kansas had two first downs (one by penalty) and a total of nine yards on just 25 offensive snaps. Texas had 28 first downs and had 446 yards on 75 snaps. In third down conversions, Texas was 10 of 13, Kansas 0-7.

A Jayhawk team which had led Texas Tech, 20-0, before fading, ran only 36 plays the whole game to 93 for the Longhorns, and UT held the ball for a little over 44 minutes in the 60 minute game.

Twenty three players, including special teams, were credited unofficially with defensive statistics. There were three sacks and eleven tackles for loss.

Offensively, Ash managed most of the first three quarters before turning it over to McCoy. The true freshman from Belton notched his first win as a starting quarterback by completing 14 of 18 passes for 145 yards. Bergeron (who finished with 13 carries and 136 yards) scored two touchdowns in a relief role to starter Malcolm Brown, who had 119 yards on 28 carries and two TDs. It was also another great night for senior inspirational leader Fozzy Whittaker, who rushed for 68 yards and caught passes for 44 more. Two-sport sensation Marquise Goodwin had his best statistical game with four pass receptions for 36 yards and five carries for 52. And Justin Tucker kicked two field goals, including a career long 52-yarder.

Thus, the first game of the second half of the regular season ended in a solid, dominating victory. The Longhorns are 5-2 on the year. But as Brown gathered his team in the dressing room after the game, the college football world seemed to be swirling out of control around them. Upsets, followed by upsets of the upsettors, seemed to be the order of the day in the middle of 2011. It was important, therefore, for Brown to remind his team that this isn’t about the finished house, or the end of the season. It is about the next brick, now that the fifth is finally in place after a couple of scrap-that-and-replace games in the mythical construction business.

In Mack Brown‘s tenure at Texas, for 12 of the 13 years (last year being the obvious exception), his teams have gotten better week by week as the season turns into November.

“They will remember November,” he often has said.

How they will remember it will depend on the laying of the bricks.

But after a year off the track, this team has brought something special to Texas football. We like this team because they like each other. The fun comes in the winning. But the joy comes in the playing these days.

10.16.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: The answer

Oct. 16, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

For Fozzy Whittaker, life is no longer about “the question.” It is about “the answer.”

And answer is exactly what he did Saturday in the Longhorns’ 38-26 loss to Oklahoma State. Twelve seconds after Oklahoma State had taken a 28-10 lead with a 100-yard kickoff return to start the second half, Whittaker answered with a 100-yard kickoff return of his own that cut the score back to eleven points at 28-17.

It was, for a guy whose career has been short-circuited several times because of injury, a UT record setting second 100-yard kickoff return in as many weeks.

Entering 2011, the season had been something of a question mark for Fozzy. The senior from Pearland had endured injuries for much of his time at Texas. He missed the season of 2007 because of a left knee injury, and then hurt his right knee and played in only seven games in 2008. He struggled with hamstring and calf problems in 2009, and added a shoulder injury to his myriad of maladies last season.

But the addition of new football strength and conditioning coach Bennie Wylie and a shift of responsibilities that came from the offensive coordinator tandem of Bryan Harsin and Major Applewhite, brought a new look for Whittaker.

Touted young running backs Malcolm Brown and Joe Bergeron captured most of the media and the public’s attention during fall camp, but it was the steadiness and maturity of Whittaker that put him in a featured role for the Longhorns of 2011.

Mack Brown says he builds his football program on “communication, trust and respect,” and no one has locked in on that trio of qualities better than Whittaker. His roles have varied. Prior to the Oklahoma game, he moved in as a return man on kickoffs, and has responded with the two field-length scoring runs. He’s played the “I” back in a traditional running formation, and has mastered the role of taking a direct snap as if he were a single-wing tailback in the “wild” formation.

With his two kickoff returns for touchdowns against Oklahoma and Oklahoma State, he joins teammate D. J. Monroe as one of only two players in recent UT history to score twice on kickoff returns in the same season. He also is only the fifth player in modern UT history to score on a run, a pass reception, and a kick return in the same season. The others included College Football Hall of Famer James Saxton (1960), Olympian Johnny “Lam” Jones (1978), Mike Adams (1992) and Victor Ike (2000). In fact, the Longhorns went 22 years without a kickoff return for a TD between Jones’ record setting 100-yarder and Ike’s return in the Holiday Bowl. Whittaker has now done it twice in back-to-back weeks.

Perhaps his greatest contribution this season, however, has been as a mentor to Brown and Bergeron.

After a frustrating career trying to get the Longhorns’ running back picture in focus, this season he has chosen to crystalize the concept by stepping out of the spotlight. Meanwhile, the highly recruited Malcolm Brown has become the Longhorns’ leading rusher – and Whittaker has filled whatever role that has been asked of him.

He stepped aside as the starting running back in the `Horns’ third game of the season, and Malcolm Brown was surprised by his attitude. Most players want to start, and all want to play. Whittaker set about the business of helping Brown become a better player.

“He’s like a big brother,” Brown said. “He is one of the coolest guys I’ve ever met in my life.”

The extra gear he has exhibited in the two kickoff returns he credits to Wylie, whose work with the team in the summer helped Whittaker push his weight to 202 pounds and increased his speed and quickness.

Fozzy is the perfect package, according to Mack Brown. As a student-athlete, he achieved his degree in corporate communications in May of 2010. He is currently enrolled in graduate school, seeking a master’s in kinesiology. He hopes to play pro football, and one day would like to work in football operations for a college or professional team.

In the secret life of Fozzy Whittaker, he is a lover of animals (he raises rabbits) and is a huge aficionado of the comic book hero Captain America.

Until this season, folks would have been hard pressed to link Whittaker with a super hero, but as 2011 has progressed, he has become a popular and unquestioned leader on a young offense which has few seniors on the two deep.

Where at one point, as a graduate, his return for his fifth year might have seemed a question it is no longer an issue. As the Longhorns close the first half of their regular season and head into an open date weekend before returning to play on October 29 against Kansas in Austin, Whittaker is clearly the team’s offensive MVP through the first six games.

In a career often filled with questions (particularly concerning a myriad of nagging injuries), Fozzy Whittaker carries his Captain America backpack to graduate studies classes at The University of Texas. He no longer has to wonder about being a hero – as far as this Texas team of 2011 is concerned, he is one.

And that, as they say, is the answer to the question.

10.14.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: The fifth brick

Oct. 14, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

When it comes to bricks and football, there is likely no greater authority than John Hagy. As one of the leading home builders in Austin, as well as a former Longhorn and NFL star who played in a Super Bowl, he knows a lot about both.

So given the Longhorns’ 2011 reconstruction philosophy of “brick by brick,” I asked John what you do when something goes wrong after you have played pretty well for four games and start feeling pretty good about yourselves after four successful layers of bricks have been put in place.

“That’s exactly how the home building business goes too,” he said with a chuckle. “I always joke around and say, `things feel a little too good right now.’ Every time I start to think things are going well, and everything’s scheduled on time, and things are hitting and firing correctly, you had better put your head on a swivel and see what you are missing, because it’s coming.”

And when it does, he says, you go back to brick four and build from there.

That’s the goal of the Texas Longhorns as they approach Saturday afternoon’s game with highly ranked Oklahoma State.

Hagy understands the challenge the UT team faces. In 1987, he was part of a rebuilding effort during his senior season in David McWilliams’ first year at Texas. He’s pleased with what he sees from the young Longhorns this season, and also understands the challenge they faced against a good Oklahoma team in the Cotton Bowl.

He was a UT team captain and earned all-Southwest Conference honors at safety that season. Before injuries ended his career, he played four years in the NFL, and was a starter at free safety on the Buffalo Bills’ 1991 Super Bowl team. For the last 15 years, he has been president of John Hagy Custom Homes, building luxurious houses in the Lake Travis and Hamilton Pool area of far southwest Austin.

So, what’s the philosophy when you hit a snag on brick No. 5?

“You take it back down. You gotta pull it apart and you gotta put it back together correctly. It takes time and effort, just like it does in football. You put in the extra work that’s necessary. You take it back to brick No. 4, where it has all been done correctly. When five is a little out of level, then it’s time to take five down and put things back up together. The scary thing is, you don’t want to put five and then get to 25 and realize it has to come down because it doesn’t line up right. You want to constantly keep checking so that if it gets to seven or eight and doesn’t look right, then you have to fix that.”

Hagy understands the challenge to be excellent, both in football and in construction. And that is how the Longhorns and the coaching staff have approached this game Saturday. Last Sunday, Texas reviewed the video of the Oklahoma game, and as defensive coordinator Manny Diaz told the Austin Longhorn Club on Thursday, they looked to learn – studying the good, and not so good, plays in the game.

It has been just a couple of days over eleven months since the Cowboys of Oklahoma State came to Austin early in November of last year and claimed their first win over Texas in the Mack Brown era for the Longhorns. To do it, OSU scored thirty unanswered points (including 23 in the second quarter) in a 33-16 victory.

The explosive 2011 team for OSU has been posting an average of 50 points per game, and has used its “hurry up” up-tempo offense to log almost 90 plays per game. John Hagy, who in a 41-27 victory over Texas Tech in 1987 became the first UT defensive player to score touchdowns on a punt return and an interception return in the same game, would tell you that you counter that up-tempo offense with alert defensive play and patience on offense. And the secret to success comes in attention to detail with an appropriate dose of intensity.”

“In football, you have to match the other team’s intensity. That has always been the case with the Oklahoma game. That game is always just different. I can remember the 1984 game where we matched each other punch for punch, and it ended in a 15-15 tie,” Hagy said.
“In building, as in football, you try to do the best you can from start to finish.It is never perfect, it can’t be perfect, there are no perfect houses. You strive for it and you try to do the best you can from start to finish. You certainly go through the season and the process of building a house trying to achieve perfection, and that’s all you can do, but you always have to know that something could be a little better and you have to go find that and seek it out and work on it.”

Hagy, who was the fiery leader of the teams on which he played, loves the potential of what he sees in the 2011 Longhorns.

“We are young and we’ve got good young players out there. I’m excited to see some of those young guys, and the secret to success will be how they all work together. You are as good as the pieces around you. You have to rely on other people,” he said.

But from a man who played the game and now builds homes for people looking for a future, it is not only about today, but about what he sees for tomorrow.

” I hope those young kids come together and in the next couple of years we are striving for a national championship,” he said. “I believe that can happen.”

In the web description of Hagy’s company, it refers to “passion” as one of the key ingredients of its success, but it also adds “attention to every detail and a commitment to excellence.”

It is the same as in the game. That’s why you build brick by brick, and have the determination, commitment, and foresight to fix it if it is off line, and get it right. The future depends on it.

10.09.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: Spinning wheel

Oct. 9, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

DALLAS – It was prophetic that Pastor Rickie Rush brought an old wagon wheel to the chapel service of the Texas Longhorns on Friday before the Texas-Oklahoma game on Saturday. It was a wheel, he said, that he had been carrying with him everywhere he goes lately.

The highly successful preacher at the 20,000 member Inspiring Body of Christ Church in Dallas takes the wheel along to make a point. A former high school friend of Longhorn assistant coach Bruce Chambers, Rush has overcome paralysis and a diminutive stature to become a dynamic speaker and minister.

The wheel is weather-worn, but Rush uses the spokes and the hub to make life’s points. And for emphasis on Friday, he tied a bandana at the top of the wheel, and then rolled it forward.

“Life,” he had said, “is like this wheel. Right now you are rolling, but you will find there are bumps in the road. The bandana represents the good times you are having right now. As it rolls, it will be at the bottom of the wheel. Does that mean it is gone? No, it simply means it will be coming around again, and you will be at the top. The good times will always come around again.

And then he addressed life’s challenges: “What would you do, if you could do anything in the world, and knew that you could not fail?”

The answer, of course, was, “do it anyway.”

All of which leads us to Saturday’s football game in the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma. Like a kid brother who would like to whip his big brother, Texas tried, and failed, to see if youth and enthusiasm could whip age and experience. It wasn’t a case of the Longhorns’ lack of effort, it was more the simple fact that on this day, Oklahoma played superbly.

You have heard the story before of the conversation between Longhorn legend James Street and his equally legendary son, Huston, after Huston’s Westlake football team lost to Cedric Benson and company in the state championship football game.

“Were you as prepared as you could be, and did you play as hard as you could?” James had asked. When the answers were both “yes,” he then said, “Then walk across that field and shake their hands and congratulate them, because that day, they were the better team.”

In retrospect, the events of the day seemed to reflect one fact about the game that even the best intentions and preparations cannot overcome. Priest Holmes, the former Longhorns running back who went on to become one of the best ever in the NFL is now an analyst on the Longhorn Network’s postgame show. In the press box Saturday, he said the thing the Longhorns had trouble solving was “the speed of this particular game.”

You can practice it, you can hear about it, but the only way you learn it is to live it. And when a young team sees it for the first time, it sometimes is almost impossible to adjust. It is important to note that Mack Brown has often quoted Darrell Royal about judging the performance of a day. There are, and were, individuals who played their best games. They are the spokes of the wheel. If enough spokes hold – even if some fail – the wheel can go on. The wheel fails when not enough spokes hold their stability.

Senior running back Fozzy Whitaker gave the Longhorns one of their brightest moments in the game with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. Junior defensive end Alex Okafor and several defenders had outstanding games, and while the result of the whole was not good, players on both sides of the ball did enough good things for the coaches to see an opportunity to eliminate mistakes and get better. Senior punter-kicker Justin Tucker was excellent, hitting on a 49-yard field goal attempt and averaging 44.6 yards per punt. It was Tucker who stood at the dressing room door as the Longhorns came off the field after the game and exhorted them to, “get your heads up. We’ve got a big game next week!” Others encouraged, “freshmen, remember this. Remember how it feels.”

That, perhaps, is the most important fact to understand. Losses, particularly in rivalry games, bother fans and observers, but nobody hurts like the team and the coaches. But lesson number two in the school of hard knocks is that when you get knocked down, you have to get back up. That’s why the Longhorns have a 24-hour rule. After Sunday’s film review, the game is recorded as a moment of success or a lesson learned, regardless of its outcome. The Texas-Oklahoma game, with the demise of the Texas-Texas A&M rivalry this year, takes full center stage as the biggest game of the year. It has always been that for the Sooners. It is part of the fiber of the state of Oklahoma. And as time progresses, it will be important for UT to not only deal with the magnitude of the game prior to mid-season, but understand the implications of what is ahead.

In the days before these two became conference partners, the game was a showcase where, afterwards, each team went away to determine its own success in its own league. Now, it is an early league game in a ten-team conference. For both teams, there is still much to do.

That is particularly true in this season. Where Oklahoma may have played as a juggernaut Saturday, there are a bunch of Big 12 challengers out there who will take both the Sooners and the Longhorns to the limit. Few expected Texas to be 4-0 and No. 10 in the country after coming from nowhere in the early season. Where Texas came into the game Saturday with enthusiasm and high hopes, Oklahoma was a decided favorite, and won decisively. That should not surprise.

This “brick by brick” season has been all about reconstruction, and there are days in that business where a rainy day comes, and the work is delayed. Then, you go back to work. There are no easy losses – whether in the last seconds or in a blowout. A loss is a loss. The key, as Mack has often said, is to not let one loss beat you twice. After a month away from Austin, Texas gets to play at home Saturday against a very good Oklahoma State team. It is a challenge, and an opportunity, for the team and the legion of Texas fans.

The lesson of Rickie Rush’s wheel is important here, because his imagery includes life as the wheel, the spokes as the team or the people around you, and the hub as the all-important center of self. It is in that space where, for everything to work, you have to keep moving.

That is why he carries the wheel with him. In its turning, it is sometimes blocked and goes up and down hills – each spoke sharing the effort, and the speed of the other. Its only promise is in its consistency, and the fact that if you keep it working, the good times will roll around to the top again. And there, you decide if you are willing to try something, even if some judge your effort futile.

It is, after all, your wheel.

10.02.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: Another opening, another show

Oct. 2, 2011

Bill Little,Texas Media Relations

AMES, IA – You had the feeling that the well-dressed lady who walked from the elevator at Jack Trice Stadium Saturday night had her world in the proper perspective. She had come to the game hopeful, with anticipation. She was leaving with disappointment, and yet a sense of pride.

“There was such excitement,” she had said. “Everyone believed that this was our time.”

For the record, her dreams had been dashed. Texas had defeated her Iowa State Cyclones, 37-14, on a picture-perfect evening in the middle of America. For a day, nay, for several weeks, Iowa State had been living the dream. With a hard-nosed favorite son of a coach named Paul Rhoads, ISU had been the comeback kids of 2011. They had rallied from behind to beat state rivals Northern Iowa and Iowa, and they had overcome Fiesta Bowl runner-up Connecticut.

At 3-0, the Cyclones were off to their best start in years, and a 28-21 shocker of a win over Texas a year ago gave them a moment to remember. Trouble was, Texas remembered, too. As the Longhorns boarded their buses for the 45-minute drive from their hotel in West Des Moines to the stadium, the focus was evident. It was the second straight road trip for Texas, and it was a stark contrast from the cornfields here and the star power of the Rose Bowl and Los Angeles, 1,800 miles away, where UT had defeated UCLA two weeks before.

The crowd, in number, would be similar. The crowd, in enthusiasm, would be quite different. That is because all day Saturday, as the 6 p.m. national TV kickoff approached, the people of the land believed. It had been years, and only briefly then, since the Iowa State faithful were so hopeful, and that is why the lady was disappointed at the end of the game. Everything had been in place for a program turning opportunity of historic proportions. Little kids and their parents and grandparents had spent the day at tents and tailgates around the stadium. A school famous for being America’s first land-grant college dedicated to agricultural pursuits and later for inventing the first digital computer, now was on the nation’s radar for inclusion among the top 25 teams in the country.

Mack Brown and his Texas staff knew all of this, and they knew that teams in hostile environments on the road can be a challenge for a young team. They knew that, couched in the posture of “brick by brick” was a healthy determination to avoid the traps of last year. It wasn’t about “pay back,” but it was clearly a classic example of the reason to respect your opponent. There was no concentrated effort to “remember last year,” but seared in the mind of all in the travel party was a promise not to forget what had happened.

So as the buses took the side roads through the tiny farming communities that make up much of the center of America’s Heartland, and the ISU faithful enjoyed the remains of the day, the signature “storm warnings” sounded at Jack Trice Stadium. And for the color and pageantry of college football, all that was good. All of that, however, was about to change.

When the smoke came from the “storm shelter” announcing the arrival of the Cyclones, as thousands of fans stood on the field to celebrate their home team, Texas made its own entrance, dressed in their “Star Wars” storm-trooper white uniforms, carrying the flags of America and Texas. The scene was set. Unfortunately for ISU, it was over almost before it started.

Where it had been the offense, with the alternating effectiveness of quarterbacks Case McCoy and David Ash, that had captured attention in the come from behind victory over BYU in Austin and in the firepower of the win over UCLA in Pasadena, this time it would be the defense and special teams that would seal the deal.

Texas scored six times in the first half to take a 34-0 lead at intermission, and four of the scores (including a blocked punt for a touchdown) came from inside the ISU 30 yard line. Two fumble recoveries and an interception set up three of them. Before the ISU band took the field for their halftime show, Texas had been deadly efficient. Even though the Cyclones had an edge in time of possession and had gained almost as many yards (181 to 221 for Texas) and first downs were even at eleven apiece, the game decidedly belonged to Texas. The second half in the 37-14 UT victory found the Texas coaches exhorting their players to “keep playing.” The second stanza provided valuable playing time for some of the younger Texas players.

Overall, the Texas defense was credited with three sacks, two fumble recoveries and a pass interception. Led by Blake Gideon, Emmanuel Acho and freshman linebacker Steve Edmond, the Longhorns had 29 players involved in at least 12 defensive snaps.

McCoy and Ash were both 7 of 12 passing, for 110 and 145 yards each. And while Texas ran only 64 plays to ISU’s 89, the Longhorns notched an even 400 yards total offense. Malcolm Brown rushed for 63 yards and Fozzy Whittaker added 41, and Jaxon Shipley had six pass receptions for 141 yards and a touchdown and Mike Davis had three catches for 72 yards and a 48-yard TD.

It was the reversal of fortune in turnovers that reflected the difference in the 2010 and 2011 meetings. Where ISU took advantage of Texas mistakes in Austin a year ago, Texas pounced on the Cyclones because of early errors. The two fumbles and the pass interception all led to points.

As the Longhorns’ headed back to Des Moines to catch their charter flight back to Austin late in the crisp fall night, it was important to show some respect to Iowa State, which had done exactly as their coach at urged. They played tough, and they never quit. That is to be commended.

For Texas, however, the midnight hour brought a recognition of the importance of being 4-0, and of the challenges remaining in this three game part of the 2011 season. The first quarter included the victories over Rice, BYU, and UCLA. The second began with an amazing stretch where the Longhorns will likely face three straight unbeaten teams in Iowa State, Oklahoma, and Oklahoma State.

In the 1920s and 1930s, the vaudeville acts that would make their way to Broadway would get tested in lesser cities in the country. One of them, much like Ames, Iowa, was Peoria, Illinois. The expression, “Will it play in Peoria?” became the measuring stick to determine if an act was mainstream ready for showing on the big stage in New York.

In the Heartland, where the drying corn stalks and the turning leaves painted a mosaic with the lush green of the rain-blessed creek banks and rivers, the children of the Horns had again put on an exciting, successful show. At 4-0 and rising in the country’s top 25, the team has passed its early tests.

Now, they have earned a chance to take their act to the big time, as the nation watches Saturday against Oklahoma in Dallas. It should be an interesting week.

09.30.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: It’s all about attitude

Sept. 30, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

AMES, IA – It will not surprise you to learn that Chuck Swindoll, the noted preacher whose radio messages are heard on two thousand radio stations in fifteen different languages, is a Marine. The operative word being “is.” I learned some time ago from my son, who became a lieutenant colonel after serving as a Marine reservist in Iraq, that there are no “ex-Marines.”

And it will also not surprise you that a Marine would be the first to tell you about the importance of “attitude.”

“The longer I live,” says Chuck Swindoll, “the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.



“Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home.



“The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude… I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.


“And so it is with you… we are in charge of our attitudes.”

It is not surprising, therefore, that when Mack Brown spoke highly of “attitude” when he was talking to Bob Cole during his weekly Thursday morning appearance on the Longhorns’ flagship radio station of KVET in Austin.

It was in reference to why Mack was having so much fun coaching this young 2011 version of the Texas Longhorn football team. It was all about “attitude.”

Attitude can make you believe in yourself, and the display of it can make others believe that you are a force to be reckoned with. Other pieces fit – check your ego at the door, be willing to put team above self, be “all in”, and, yes, have confidence and show a little swagger. But the umbrella under which they all live is attitude.

“It’s not bragging,” Darrell Royal once said, “if you can do it.”

All of this is critical to the mission Texas undertakes Saturday as they visit the Iowa State Cyclones at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames at 6 p.m. for their Big 12 opener. The game will match two unbeaten teams, and for maybe the first time ever, both teams think they can win. Until last year, Iowa State had never beaten Texas. But with a 28-21 victory in Austin, the Cyclones changed the dynamic of a series that had been decidedly (like, 7-0 decidedly) on the Longhorns side of the won-loss chart.

With that loss fresh in their memories, and a healthy respect for what Iowa State has accomplished already this year, Texas goes on the road for a second straight time. This, they know, will be a challenge – and so far, it is that part about attitude which this young team seems to relish the most.

Texas has used its open date to continue learning as the `Horns have studied and practiced the evolving offense of co-coordinators Bryan Harsin and Major Applewhite and their fellow offensive coaches as well as the defensive schemes of coordinator Manny Diaz and his group. Practice with this crowd has been an effective blend of stern corrections and pat-on-the-back “attaboys.” They have been about one more rep, one more kick coverage, just in time to catch the bus back from the practice field to the dressing room.

Win or lose Saturday, each day this team is growing up.

Mack is happy with his staff, and pleased with the talent of the players. Most of all, however, he is buoyed by their attitude. It has been a time of hard work, physical practices, hollering and hugs. And you get really good when both are happening. You can, as the Texas head man has said, coach a team harder after a win than you can after a loss, and this team is 3-0.

The lucky fans have been those whose cable providers have chosen to add The Longhorn Network to their television lineup. They have seen behind the scenes looks, including live practice coverage. What they have seen most of all, is an effort, and a willingness, to learn.

Paramount in the atmosphere, for the players, the opponents, and the fans, is the open-your-Christmas-package intrigue of the element of surprise. The defense has had linemen dropping in pass coverage, and the offense has made runners out of backs, wide receivers and quarterbacks and quarterbacks out of ends and running backs. You hang around just to see what is going to happen next.

Make no mistake, however. This is a work in progress. Texas’ history with innovations reflects that there can be early struggles. The new looks on offense and defense mark the most dramatic changes the Longhorn program has seen in many years. It is like when Darrell Royal and his staff invented the “flip-flop” offense (where the offensive linemen actually switched sides from right to left depending on the blocking required) in 1961, and the college-game changing innovation of “The Wishbone” in 1968. The Wishbone started 0-1-1, before taking off on a 30-game winning streak.

This is not a prediction that similar success will happen, but it is a stone-cold statement that it can happen.

And that, you see, is the secret to attitude. Most of all, it is about believing that you can.

In the book, One Heartbeat II, we tell the story of Denise, a large bus driver with Technicolor hair, who was charged with driving the Longhorn basketball team back from a game in Houston against Rice in the 1980s.

Rice students, known for their innovative pranks, had blocked the bus with two sleek new cars, one in front, and one in back, making it impossible for the bus to get out. As they gleefully watched the Texas coaches and players become frustrated, Denise stepped off the bus.

She took one look at the cars, and another at the young wizards who thought they had foiled her.

“My name is Heavy D,” she said, her dark eyes sparkling.

And then she added: “Now, I am going to move my bus. I can get another bus. Can you get another car?

That, my friends, is attitude. Commit to something, keep working, be willing to learn, be willing to risk, and be willing to do.

09.19.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: Where dreams come true

Sept. 19, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

PASADENA, CA – At the happy-ending finish to the movie “Pretty Woman” a bystander walking through the final scene says, “Welcome to Hollywood! What’s your dream? Everybody comes here; this is Hollywood, land of dreams. Some dreams come true, some don’t; but keep on dreamin’ – this is Hollywood. Always time to dream, so keep on dreamin’.”

And so there they were, these young dreamers that make up Texas Football, 2011. Right there on the edge of Hollywood, in the historic Rose Bowl, cradled in the shadow of the Arroyo Seco and the San Gabriel Mountains. Starting with a short practice on Friday, the trip was both a journey down memory lane, and a brave new world tour of a place they had seen, but had never been to before.

Somewhere in the midst of all of it, senior linebacker Emmanuel Acho injected reality into nostalgia. As head coach Mack Brown was reflecting on the fact that the Longhorns would be on the west sideline – the same one they had in the Rose Bowl Game during the victories over Michigan and Southern Cal during the seasons of 2004 and 2005, and what a special place the Rose Bowl was – Acho interrupted politely and respectfully said that this meeting with UCLA on Saturday was about this team, and this game, and redemption for last year’s game.

By the time the 49-20 victory over the Bruins was over, this team, in this game, had affirmed that the Longhorns of 2011 have high goals and big dreams. In a community where stars abound, this game became a microcosm of its surroundings.

Psychologists say it takes three seconds to form a first impression, and as the college football world got its first real look at this Texas team, it was an impressive first impression. In arguably the Longhorns’ first test of 2011, against BYU last week, the game produced a team victory where the defense kept fighting to give the offense a chance in a 17-16 victory. This time, it was the offense which not only set the pace, it maintained it in a game where both sides of the ball were outstanding in the first 20 minutes.

The Longhorns came in looking for a fast start, and they got it, turning first quarter interceptions by defensive backs Carrington Byndom, Adrian Phillips (off a tip from safety Blake Gideon) and Kenny Vaccaro into three scoring drives and a 21-0 lead. When the lead had reached 28-10 by the end of the first half, the offense – led by Case McCoy with calculated help from David Ash – had amassed 254 yards of total offense.

And for a large regional television audience and a crowd of 54,583 that filled almost two thirds of the stadium that is the cradle of college football, it wasn’t about what the Longhorns did, it was about how they did it. They had an incredible amount of fun. In the first quarter alone, 55 members of the traveling squad of 76 got in the game. Twenty-three of them were on offense.

The Friday workout had introduced the young Texas players to the field and the scene, and it gave the veterans who were part of a Longhorn team which had played for the national championship there just 19 months before, a chance to reconnect. Fresh on their minds as well was a chance for some unfinished business after suffering a season altering loss to the Bruins in 2010.

It is important to note, however, that this game was not about what had happened in the disappointing loss in the national championship game in 2009, nor that game in Austin last year. You do not get “do-overs” in college football.

If this game assumes a place in Texas football history, it will be remembered as the premiere performance of what is shaping up to be a season of just plain fun for this Longhorn team and its fans.

“Not many people thought this team would be 3-0,” Mack Brown said after the game, which produced the first dominant win over a quality opponent since the 2009 season.

It is important to note that, like the remodeling of the Rose Bowl Stadium itself, this team is also part of a construction zone. The “brick by brick” mantra carries over into every phase of this team and its staff. Its games are as much about discovery as they are about execution, and both are critical for the long-term success Texas is seeking.

When co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin came from Boise State, he promised an offense that would have many different looks and roles for many different players. He has delivered that. Mack Brown wanted a power running game, and the Longhorns rushed for 284 yards Saturday, with nine different players carrying the ball.

Certainly the most visible offensive move centered around the quarterback position, where two young players – sophomore Case McCoy and freshman David Ash – had scant game experience as they took the field in that grand old stadium. Texas, with four appearances and a 3-1 record in the stadium over the last eight seasons, has actually played as many games there as it has any road arena except the Cotton Bowl over that period.

And even as the stadium seemed magical for Dusty Mangum and Vince Young and for a handful of shining moments even in defeat in 2009, the spirits that dance in the foothills of the scenic San Gabriel Mountains seemed to be smiling at the varied offense of Harsin and Major Applewhite and the innovative defensive attack of defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and his crew.

They were there for freshman running back Malcolm Brown, veteran Fozzy Whittaker and Cody Johnson, as Brown rushed for 110 yards on 22 carries in his first start. The speed of Marquise Goodwin, and the versatility of Jaxon Shipley were also showcased. And as part of the “feel good” come-back-from-devastating-injury story of Blaine Irby and D. J. Grant, the magic continued as Grant caught six balls for 77 yards and three touchdowns, and was named the Longhorns’ offensive player of the game.

With Vaccaro and Keenan Robinson each credited with nine tackles and 16 players (including special teams) making at least one key play, the defense continued as an impressive work in progress.

It was a marvelous day for Justin Tucker, the senior kicker who excelled in punting, kicking off, and in a perfect seven-for-seven in extra points.

And finally, there is Case McCoy.

What can you say about a guy who sat with his friend and now roommate Jaxon Shipley in the stands in the stadium in January of 2010 as their brothers played in the BCS National Championship Game? Saturday, on a post card kind of day in the Rose Bowl, he had stepped into the sunlight, completing 12 of 15 passes for 168 yards and two touchdowns and had been the primary conductor for an offensive scheme which answered every UCLA challenge with seven touchdowns.
I
In a postgame interview on national television Saturday, he answered a commentator’s question.

“Are you now the leader of this team?” she had asked.

“I consider myself a leader,” he said, “but we have a lot of leaders.”

It was, for Case McCoy, not about his brother, his heritage, or anybody else. It was about the team, and as the interview ended, he ran to join them for the last strands of “The Eyes of Texas.”

As the team loaded the plane to head back to Austin, McCoy had finished a final phone call and cleared security as he walked up the stairs to the front door of the jetliner. At the top, he paused and looked back over the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport, to the majestic skyline of the City of Angels in the distance. Only he knew where he was looking, or at what.

But nestled somewhere in the sunset mosaic, which included the San Gabriels and Pasadena and the Rose Bowl, was Hollywood.

Where dreams come true.

09.16.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: A stepping stone

Sept. 16, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

PASADENA, CA — A little known fact in the grand scheme of history is that the first editorial advice for men to seek their fortunes in the western United States supposedly is not only often attributed to the wrong person, it is also misquoted. And the guy who gets most of the credit steadfastly denied that he ever said it in the first place.

It seems that long before a newspaper man named Horace Greeley was supposed to have said “Go west, young man, go west…,” an editor at the Terre Haute Express in Indiana named John B. L. Soule wrote, “Go west, young man, and grow up with the country.” Greeley said he never said it or wrote it, and nobody can prove that Soule actually wrote it in 1851, because it wasn’t in the Terre Haute Express that year – or so all parties said.

Well my, my.

Since all of the parties who did, or didn’t, have since departed the stadium, that debate will never be settled. What is known, however, is that a very young Texas Longhorn football team is headed that way in search of growing up.

It will be the sixth meeting between Texas and UCLA in a series that, while it hasn’t been of epic proportions, has had more than its share of significant games. Where this one will fit, only history (which will be reported by 60,000 or so people and a regional television audience) will determine. In the past, this game has either been a stumbling block, or a stepping stone for Texas.

The first time these two high profile national programs hooked up was for a home and home series in 1970 and 1971 before the current children of the ‘Horns were even born. That Texas team was defending national champion, was riding a 22-game winning streak and was ranked No. 2 in the country. With a dramatic 45-yard touchdown pass from Eddie Phillips to Cotton Speyrer, the Longhorns scored with 12 seconds left to survive in the 1970 game in Austin, 20-17.

The next season it appeared business as usual for the Longhorns, as they were ranked No. 3 nationally when they played UCLA in the Los Angeles Coliseum. Phillips was the master of the Wishbone offense, and he deftly directed his team to what appeared to be an easy, 28-10 victory. But on the final touchdown drive late in the game, Phillips pulled a muscle in his leg that would never completely heal. Texas would go on to an 8-3 season.

The two schools didn’t meet again until the 1997 season, in a game that turned out to be a disaster of dashed dreams for John Mackovic and his Texas program. The Longhorns had finished the 1996 season as one of the most talked about programs in America. Mackovic had wowed the college football world with the famous “Fourth and Inches” call that produced a game-clinching pass in a shocking 37-27 victory over Nebraska in the first Big 12 Championship game in St. Louis. And after dispatching Rutgers, 48-14 in the season opener, Texas was a heavy favorite over the twice-beaten Bruins.

The bright, sun shiny day turned dark quickly, however, and by the time the carnage was over, UCLA had won, 66-3. For all practical purposes, the Mackovic era at Texas had abruptly ended, even though he wasn’t re-assigned until after the 4-7 season.

When Mack Brown took his first Longhorn team to California to play UCLA in 1998, the Bruins had moved their home games to the storied Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena. And to the dismay of the 15,000 Longhorn fans who showed up, things didn’t start well there, either. But despite an overall mismatch in personnel, things began to look up for the Longhorns in the second half. After starting quarterback Richard Walton broke his finger early in the game, a redshirt freshman named Major Applewhite took over as the Longhorn signal caller.

Eventual Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams and Applewhite helped the Longhorns score 28 second half points, and despite the 49-31 loss, Texas left the stadium with hope in a season that would end with a 9-3 record.

Then came 2010. Just as in 1997, Texas came into the game highly ranked and unbeaten. The Bruins had struggled. But with a second half rushing explosion, UCLA stunned the ‘Horns, 34-12. It was a harbinger of what would end as a 5-7 season for UT.

All of which brings us to this game Saturday at 12:30 p.m. (Pacific Coast time) in the Rose Bowl.

So much has happened since Brown brought that out-manned crew here 14 seasons ago. First, the venerable old stadium which once seemed so ominous to the visitors from Texas has become a comfortable place. In the last eight seasons, Texas has played three times in the Rose Bowl, winning two sterling silver champion trophies in 2004 and 2005 (the second, of course, in what was also the BCS National Championship game).

Many of the players on the Texas team were also on hand in 2009, when Texas played the BCS National Championship game on January 7, 2010.

Now, there is a “wow” for you. Nineteen months ago, in the same stadium where this very young Texas team with up to 17 true freshman who may play Saturday, Texas played Alabama for the national title – in a game where, save for a freak injury to their quarterback, most folks think Texas had a heck of chance to win.

You can dwell on all of the ironies – of the turns and twists of fate in past Texas-UCLA games and Rose Bowl visits – but the fact is, Mr. Soule, or Greeley, or maybe it is even Mack Brown and his staff that have summed this up pretty well.

This 2-0 Texas team flies to California for the purpose of playing and winning a football game. You can toss out all five of those other meetings, including what happened last year. The venue is a very special place – a hallowed place in all of college football. In the canyons of the Arroyo Seco looming over the northeast corner of the stadium, the ghosts of college football past watch.

It is they who have seen the hopes and the dreams, and it is they who know so well that it is the spirit within, and not some outside force, that determines who fights to the end. In the rocks of the canyon and the history of the mountains, they also understand the wisdom of the Longhorns’ season theme of “brick by brick.”

For it is in that, in their growing-up trip to the west, that the young men of Texas will come upon a stumbling block, or build a stepping stone.

09.11.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: It’s about the mortar

Sept. 11, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

It was in the video room of Sally and Mack Brown‘s home that former Longhorn defensive back Johnnie Johnson stood there, talking to the 2011 Longhorn seniors who had just reported for fall practice last month. The discussion centered around the theme adopted by the team – a rebuilding theme of “brick by brick.”

But Johnnie wasn’t talking about the bricks. He was, instead, talking about the glue that holds them together. It was about role playing for some, and leadership for others. The point was, you can stack all the bricks that you want, but unless you have mortar between them, the wall is easily knocked down.

Mortar.

The web’s Autonopedia–described as “the practical encyclopedia for sustainable living,” says this about the bonding agent used in construction:

“Mortar consists of the body or aggregate, which is fine sand; and the binding material, which is cement mixed thoroughly with water. Mortar is used to bed blocks as well as for plastering. A good mortar should be easy to use and should harden fast enough that it does not cause delays in the construction. It must be strong enough, long lasting and weatherproof.

“The best mortar for a particular job is not necessarily the strongest one. Other properties like workability, plasticity or faster hardening can be more important, though the strength of the mortar must of course be sufficient for the job. Mortar should neither be much stronger or much weaker than the blocks with which it is used.”

Johnnie’s simple lesson in construction was manifested Saturday night as the young Texas Longhorns overcame a 13-point deficit to beat Brigham Young, 17-16, before a packed house of over 100,000 in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium.

The game was not about the bricks, it was about the stuff called teamwork that holds them together. Pick a player, and you pick a brick. Pick the effort of the entire team, and you have the beginnings of a wall.

It is important here to not get ahead of ourselves. The come-from-behind win conjured memories of games in the first decade of the 21st Century which often featured such dramatics. The cast of characters has changed drastically, but the thrill of the hunt, and the conquest, remains the same.

Time will tell whether what happened in the second half was a growing-up reality or an illusion, but what we do know is, you can’t prove you can do it until you’ve done it. And that is what happened Saturday night to the youthful players and staff in the second game of Mack Brown‘s 14th season at Texas. They did it.

The signatures of the new staff on both sides of the ball were written all over the two halves of football. For the second game in a row, the defense played endorsing a theory that the late Longhorn defensive coordinator Mike Campbell was a big subscriber to -“bend, but don’t break.” Despite repeated assaults on the Texas goal in the first half, BYU came away with two field goals and a passing touchdown. With the Longhorn offense struggling, the defense played with a fierce passion that reflects the attitude of defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and the defensive coaches.

And as they held on, the offense came on.

Adhering to the philosophy of “if it’s not working, try something else,” Texas co-offensive coordinators Bryan Harsin and Major Applewhite switched styles and quarterbacks with enough success to win the game.

Through it all, however, the game was a reminder that a team is not a collection of individuals…rather, a collection of individuals is a team. They are the mortar between the bricks. The evidence came from the support of the crowd, but it was again manifested by the work of the team.

Through two games, this team appears to be one of the more interesting collections of young people in recent years at Texas. You can fill in the blanks with the sentence: “this team (or this guy) reminds me of….”

Still, it is important to remember that it is way too early to expect anything. At this point, you can expect everything. Sometimes, the wall needs elastic values, and other times it needs hard-rock solid. History tells us we Longhorns can get way ahead of ourselves in anointing super stars. That is why the approach of the staff has been so impressive.

When wide receiver Marquise Goodwin decided to return to football last week, some questioned how quickly he could get back into the mix (what was that in that mortar business about “faster hardening?”), because he didn’t know the plays or the offense. To which receivers coach Darrell Wyatt responded, “He knows fast.” Goodwin’s 40-yard kickoff return was a critical play in the comeback. But you could say the same about plays from Malcolm Brown, David Ash, Jaxon Shipley and Case McCoy offensively. Justin Tucker was superb both punting and kicking, and defensively, folks such as Carrington Byndom, Quandre Diggs, Kenny Vaccaro, Jordan Hicks, Emmanuel Acho and Adrian Phillips were part of that mortar as well as being a brick.

At the end of the game, the players and the coaches were exhausted – the happy kind of exhausted which comes when you check your ego at the door and leave everything you have to give on the field.

That was the final, exciting piece about Saturday. Again it wasn’t perfect, but it was another positive segment of building a wall. The bricks and the mortar were coming together – flexible at times, solid at others.

It’s like watching one of those TV shows where the characters evolve and the plot changes each week. And nobody really knows where that will lead us. But right now, the journey is really fun.

09.09.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: Two dozen sandwiches

Sept. 9, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

As the Texas Longhorns get ready for Saturday’s meeting with BYU in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium, emotions are sorted in many different stacks in our world. On the one hand, there is the excitement of the second game of the new era of football featuring Mack Brown‘s young staff and their equally youthful players.

The flip side, of course, is that the game will feature a tribute to the events of September 11, 2001, when America’s mainland was attacked in what signified the first volley in a war that would be waged by terrorist aggressors. Throughout our country, much will be noted, and rightly so, about how much has changed because of that day.

It is also important, however, to think about what hasn’t.

In the summer of 1998, I took a solo trip through the northwestern states of Washington, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The beauty of the country reminded me that God was on a roll when he made the mountains. But it was in Yellowstone National Park that reality really struck me. There, in the historic park, were the scars of the epic fires that had ravaged almost 800,000 acres in 1988. The remnants of charred log pole pines—some more than 100 feet tall—remained.

It had been ten years, and I guess the time frame with the events of 9/11 is what began to trigger the genesis of this commentary.

America has changed. Throughout these days, you will hear about the loss of liberty, the heightened security, enhanced distrust. We will remember our resolve of that day, and be sad by the loss of lives then, and in the longest war in our nation’s history which has followed. There will be reflections of disillusionment with our leaders as they deal with troubled foreign policies and a struggling economy. It will be noted that our churches swelled with people in the days after the tragedy, and yet have slowly dwindled in attendance since. Even the powerful patriotism which swelled inside all of us then has ebbed in some cynics.

Beyond that, here in Texas, we have just gone through the hottest summer and the worst drought in history. Our lakes are drying up and our rivers dwindle to a trickle.

We are a people living in fear. And that is why I am telling you this story – because at the heart of our soul and the fiber of our spirit, we also live in hope.

That is why that trip to Yellowstone matters. Underneath those burned trees were hundreds of new seedlings, healthy, green, and reaching for the nourishment of the sun and the skies.

History tells us that this is not the first, nor will it be the last, time we have walked through – if you will pardon the expression – the fire together. For 100 years, decade after decade, we have had those challenging times. Wars and depressions consumed moments during much of the first half of the 20th century. The “Greatest Generation” endured the days of the Dust Bowl and the horror of World War II. Those of us who grew up in the 1950s learned to fear the “Bomb,” as our big brothers died in a far off country called Korea. Then, too, Texas burned and baked in the years when it never rained. The sixties brought Vietnam and a myriad of protests, and in the seventies came the national disgrace of Watergate. Time after time, we have been there, and returned.

That is because America was founded by people who came – and keep coming – because of the hope of a better tomorrow. That is why men and women of our armed services fight and stand sentinel in distant lands to preserve our freedom. It is because of them that Saturday night, the teams of BYU and Texas can play a game called football. It is at that core that education lives, for the college game thrives because it is all part of a process of growing and learning. Learning the truth, the slogan on the UT Tower says, “shall make us free.” And that is the powerful extra benefit of education.

How we haven’t changed, you see, is that we are a free people. That means that our service personnel fight – not to make war – but to create peace. That means we remember those who died on 9/ll, and honor those who stand in harm’s way for us.

We have the capacity of the principles on which Mack Brown had built this football program – faith, family, friends and a common purpose. And we have something else as well.

With the arrival of the young football staff, a blessing that has accompanied that is the children who came with them. In the midst of one fall practice, as the receivers were running routes and the quarterbacks were pinpointing their throws, co-offensive coordinator Bryan Harsin looked up and saw his five-year-old son, Davis, playing with defensive coordinator Manny Diaz‘s kids among the blocking dummies on the far side of the practice facility. When a pattern came close to the youngsters, the Longhorns’ play caller stopped and shouted across the field to his son and the other boys.

“Davis…guys…move out of the way!”

To which his son sheepishly replied, “Okay.”

And then he added, “I love you, Dad.”

Our ability to love…that will always be with us.

In the last week, fires devastated many areas in Central Texas. One that you heard little about was a near-miss that came only a few feet from a close-in area of Northwest Austin called Angus Valley. The fire, in Yett Creek Park, endangered hundreds of homes, as well as the Riata Apartment complex. And that’s the final piece of this story.

Vigilance by homeowners, and quick work by firefighters, managed to stop the fire before it turned that part of Austin into a tragedy. Late in the evening, as neighbors gathered on the street to discuss the events of the day, two fire trucks continued to work at the edge where the Valley joined the park. It was then that one of the women came walking out of the woods.

“They need food,” she said. “There are 24 of them, and they will be there most of the night. Let’s go make them some sandwiches.”

The reality reminded us that brave folks had walked into that fire for us, just as the men and women of our armed services, police, fire and EMS do every day. What we had before 9/ll, and what we realized in that moment, is that whatever happens, we have each other.

That is thread that ties a football team, a community, and a people together. It is why we remember 9/11, with resolve, honor, and most of all, hope.

09.04.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: The air of confidence

Sept. 4, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

In the musical, The Sound of Music, the Julie Andrews character of Maria sings “What will my future be? I wonder.” Maria must have known about the atmosphere in Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium Saturday night.

For just less than a year, Texas football has been talking about moving forward. It has embraced its rich tradition, with the caveat that you respect the past–both the good and the not-so-good–and move toward the future. Conversations centered, not on the missteps or the championships, but on the “now.”

And so the 34-9 win over Rice Saturday night was a blending, and a beginning.

All of the ingredients were there. The new Longhorn Network launched its inaugural game with class, in a continued showing of what has been a series of rave reviews of those who have had a chance to view it. As Texas-based Grande Communications jumped on board on Friday, 140,000 homes in Central Texas were added to the more than four million viewer base already developed for the fledgling UT exclusive network.

The season opener had been described as the most anticipated in years at Texas, and the packed house of over 101,000 fans got what they came for. The youth movement – both on the field and in the coaching staff – reminded us all that youth is served best, not by the “what has been” but by the “what can be.”

Now, here’s the connection to Maria’s song: while to some Saturday may have been about tradition and trick plays, touchdowns scored and those not allowed, most of all it was about confidence. Mack Brown has said over and over again that his program is built on “communication, trust, respect and a common purpose.”

The quest for a new beginning had been forged by a winter of discontent after the 2010 season ended. Good coaches and great people left the program for a variety of reasons. Mack was left with the challenge of reconstructing a staff and redefining his mission. And as the first game for the new staff approached last week, the learning process was an interesting one. The challenge for the staff on Saturday became blending the divergent experiences and ideas from a bushel basket of respected universities and professional teams, with those worthy standards which have reflected the Mack Brown era at Texas for the past 13 years. Everything from pre-game to bench operation would be new in this initial contest of the new version of Texas football.

And that was before you ever got to the game.

Maria, you see, sang of “wonder,” but she sang most about “confidence.”

And that is really where our story begins.

First, Mack had to have confidence in his new hires, and the coaches had to have confidence in their boss and the UT establishment. Then, the staff had to have confidence in each other. That is how Bennie Wylie had begun the important summer work with the counseling of his friend Jeff Madden. It is how Manny Diaz took the knowledge and wisdom of the veteran Duane Akina and blended it with the youth and ideas of Oscar Giles and Bo Davis, both of whom had coached defensive linemen who were part of national championships.

And it was the golden thread that bound Bryan Harsin, Darrell Wyatt, and Stacy Searels with the young ideas of Major Applewhite and the stability of the veteran Bruce Chambers.

History tells us that James Street, who was one of the winningest athletes in Texas Longhorn history, used to walk away by himself before games, just to focus his thoughts. Saturday night in the DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium press box, I saw Bryan Harsin do the same thing. And then, he went to work.

Collectively, they had to believe in themselves. Most of all, however, they had spent a spring and a gruelingly hot summer trying to get their players to do the same thing. If Saturday night were Christmas morning, 7 p.m. meant it was time to open their packages.

With a theme of unity and a mantra of “brick by brick,” the first phase had been to get the players to understand the meaning of the poker term “all in.” They had to do that. They had to be that.

Diaz had promised an attacking defense which would protect its end zone at all costs, and with Emmanuel Acho, Keenan Robinson and Kenny Vaccaro leading the tackling, they did that. Both sides of the ball promised to play a lot of players. The defensive statistics chart (which does include special teams plays) included 26 different players who made at least one play.

Offensively, Harsin’s innovative attack included seven players with rushing statistics, four different players who threw passes, and eight who caught at least one. Of all the reclamation efforts from last season, however, Harsin’s bench mark was at the quarterback position. That had begun with the instilling of the final piece of the confidence message.

You can have confidence in your head coach, you can have confidence in your position coach, you can believe in faith, family and friends, but in the end, your success will be determined by your belief in yourself. In the summer work when the NCAA rule prohibits coaches from instructing players on football business, the quarterbacks who hoped to play checked their egos at the door and accepted the responsibility of learning the fundamental principles of the offense Harsin and Applewhite had melded from Boise and Texas. In learning together, they also bonded together, and the friendship that developed between Garrett Gilbert, Case McCoy and Davis Ash has permeated the “brick by brick” philosophy. Under Harsin’s tutelage they each have a critical role in the position, and they have each other’s back.

That same trait is spread throughout this team that is an interesting blend of a few veteran seniors and juniors and a host of sophomores and freshmen. Seventeen freshmen played Saturday night. “Unity” has been a major emphasis. That is why you won’t find a lot of conversation about rankings or opponents. For this team to continue to grow, it cannot be about “them” and “outside influences.” What you saw the beginning of Saturday was a team that has been forged on the simple principle of being about “us.” Admittedly, they have a long way to go, but you get the feeling that whatever their final destination, they are going there together.

Just as young people are pieces of adults, Maria’s song in The Sound of Music has pieces that will be a part of the determination of what this team learns, and where it may actually go.

“Face my mistakes without defiance”…”with each step I am more certain”…

So it was Saturday. The defense shut Rice down in the second half, and the offense scored on three straight touchdown drives of 72, 99 and 94 yards in a ten-minute span in the middle of the second half. What it all came down to was Maria’s final line in The Sound of Music song: “I have confidence in confidence alone! Besides which you see, I have confidence in me!”

And though there is a long way to go and opening games are far from perfect, that’s a great place to begin.

08.25.2011 | Football

Bill Little commentary: Here comes fall

Aug. 25, 2011

Bill Little, Texas Media Relations

Dr. Paul Tucker, one of Austin’s great cardiologists, tells the story of an encounter when he was the Chief Medical Resident in the renowned heart complex in Houston. He was standing at the elevator with the legendary heart surgeon and UT graduate Denton Cooley when the doors opened and a distraught woman walked out.

“Dr. Cooley, Dr. Cooley, ” she said. “I have to know…is George going to be alright?”

To which Dr. Cooley placed his hand on her shoulder and reassuringly said, “Yes, George will be fine.”

Doctors Cooley and Tucker then stepped alone in the elevator, and as the doors closed, Cooley said, “Paul, I have no idea who that woman was…but I can’t stand a doctor who is a pessimist!”

That kind of positive attitude is why I love Bill Hecke, the weatherman on the easy listening station which awakens us every morning. The other day, in the midst of the heat and drought, as we all fight to keep fires away and trees, grass and plants alive, Mr. Hecke gave the usual “heat advisory” and talked about the remote possibility that some storm would come from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and save us.
And then he said this, and I am paraphrasing here; as he looked at the weather maps, north of Canada, he could see the stirring of atmospheric phenomena which meant one thing:

Fall is coming.

Tuesday morning in the midst of the hottest summer ever recorded in Austin, the Texas Longhorns went through their 22nd practice of their two-a-day drills in preparation for the start of the football season on September 3rd.

While the work in the meeting rooms and at practice has been extensive, there have also been opportunities to listen and learn from other sources. On Sunday, August 14, the Longhorns boarded buses after practice for a short trip to Camp Mabry, the historic home of the Texas National Guard and training facility for other important military reserve units. The plan had been to actually practice on the drill field, but what had germinated as an idea in the cool spring was frustrated by grass that had turned to brittle straw. Still, the players had a chance to meet and sign autographs for military personnel, their families, and families of those who are deployed.

Then, they heard from the commanding general and the chief aide to the Adjutant General of the State of Texas. They heard of the cold, and the heat, of the remote places in the Middle East where American service men and women stand in harm’s way for our freedom.

A week of practice followed, and then came a visit with two very diverse Longhorn legends. First was Red McCombs, who as one of The University’s major benefactors has both the business school and the “Red Zone” (the north end zone) at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium named for him (and he shares the softball field name with his wife, Charlene).

Red’s annual talk to the team triggered a memory and a challenge.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, the University of Southern California dominated the sport of college baseball as no team has ever done before or since. Each year, eight outstanding college teams would qualify for the College World Series in Omaha. Seven of the teams journeyed to America’s midlands in pursuit of their dream–they went “hoping” to win.

Southern Cal, on the other hand, went “expecting to win.”

And they did.

That was the challenge Red offered to the Longhorns of 2011–regain that swagger that brought Texas football to a similar place in the first decade of the 21st Century.

He then revived a familiar phrase that was part of Texas’ campaign that took them to the national championship game in 2009–go “All In.”

At the Sunday practice on August 21st, as temperatures even inside the “bubble” (the indoor practice facility) reached into the 90s, the team heard from the other part of that Longhorn history tandem.

Eric Metcalf, who arguably was the best Texas football player in the decade of the 1980s, has been a frequent visitor to Longhorn games over the years. The former NFL star and world class Olympian came with a special message this time, however. With UT President Bill Powers and his wife, Kim Heilbrun on hand, Metcalf told the team he liked what he had seen in practice, and how the young guys should embrace their opportunity. He was no stranger to some of the players. Co-offensive coordinator/running backs coach Major Applewhite has put together a tape of the legendary Longhorn runners to show his young players, and Metcalf is part of that highlight reel.

But this day, he talked of something beyond just the game. Eric Metcalf played his last down of football for Texas in the season of 1988. And in the fall of 2011, he stood before this latest version of the Longhorns as a brand new college graduate. So when he spoke of taking care of your work in the classroom, he spoke from the heart.

As classes started at Texas on Wednesday and the final scrimmage closed pre-season practice Thursday, game week is only a few days away. Friday, the Longhorn Network will launch its live telecasting of all things associated with The University of Texas.

Following Sunday’s practice, Mack Brown took time to visit with the members of the Longhorn Band, who have also begun their practice in anticipation of the 7 p.m. meeting with Rice which will open the season on September 3rd.

Two years ago, the summer of 2009 was one of those times where everything was centered on “expectations.” The excitement carried all the way to the national championship game.

The excitement that has been building this year (brick-by-brick, by the way) has been focused on “anticipation.” And in that space, we celebrate with Dr. Cooley in his mandate for optimism, and rest assured by Mr. Hecke.

Fall, after all, is coming.